I rant. I rave. I vent. I speak my mind. I say what others only think. I am a voice of reason (if only in my own mind) exposing the forces of evil that threaten our extinction.

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Okay, I promised myself when I started this blog that I wouldn't let others put words in my mouth. But the following article says everything I had on my mind regarding Imusgate, so I'm going to let it stand for my point of view. It's hard to refute. If you think you can, please contact me and prove it!_______________________________________________________

You've given Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson another opportunity topretend that the old fight, which is now the safe and lucrative fight,is still the most important fight in our push for true economic andsocial equality.

Thank you, Don Imus. You extended Black History Month to April, and wecan once again wallow in victimhood, protest like it's 1965 and deludeourselves into believing that fixing your hatred is more necessarythan eradicating our self-hatred.

The bigots win again.

While we're fixated on a bad joke cracked by an irrelevant, bad shockjock, I'm sure at least one of the marvelous young women on theRutgers basketball team is somewhere snapping her fingers to the beatof 50 Cent's or Snoop Dogg's or Young Jeezy's latest ode glorifyingnappy-headed pimps and hos.

I ain't saying Jesse, Al and Vivian are gold-diggas, but they don'thave the heart to mount a legitimate campaign against the realblack-folk killas.

It is us. At this time, we are our own worst enemies. We have allowedour youths to buy into a culture (hip hop) that has been perverted,corrupted and overtaken by prison culture. The music, attitude andbehavior expressed in this culture is anti-black, anti-education,demeaning, self-destructive, pro-drug dealing and violent.

Rather than confront this heinous enemy from within, we sit back andwait for someone like Imus to have a slip of the tongue and make themistake of repeating the things we say about ourselves.

It's embarrassing. Dave Chappelle was offered $50 million to makeracially insensitive jokes about black and white people on TV. He washailed as a genius. Black comedians routinely crack jokes about whiteand black people, and we all laugh out loud.

I'm no Don Imus apologist. He and his tiny companion Mike Lupicablasted me after I fell out with ESPN. Imus is a hack.

But, in my view, he didn't do anything outside the norm for shockjocks and comedians. He also offered an apology. That should've beenthe end of this whole affair. Instead, it's only the beginning. It'san opportunity for Stringer, Jackson and Sharpton to step on victimplatforms and elevate themselves and their agenda$.

I watched the Rutgers news conference and was ashamed.

Martin Luther King Jr. spoke for eight minutes in 1963 at the March onWashington. At the time, black people could be lynched and deniedfundamental rights with little thought. With the comments of atalk-show host most of her players had never heard of before last weekserving as her excuse, Vivian Stringer rambled on for 30 minutes aboutthe amazing season her team had.

Somehow, we're supposed to believe that the comments of a man withvirtually no connection to the sports world ruined Rutgers' wonderfulseason. Had a broadcaster with credibility and a platform in thesports world uttered the words Imus did, I could understand a level ofoutrage.

But an hourlong press conference over a man who has alreadyapologized, already been suspended and is already insignificant isjust plain intellectually dishonest. This is opportunism. This is adistraction.

In the grand scheme, Don Imus is no threat to us in general and nothreat to black women in particular. If his words are so powerful andso destructive and must be rebuked so forcefully, then what should wedo about the idiot rappers on BET, MTV and every black-owned radiostation in the country who use words much more powerful and much moredestructive?

I don't listen or watch Imus' show regularly. Has he at any pointglorified selling crack cocaine to black women? Has he celebratedblack men shooting each other randomly? Has he suggested in any waythat it's cool to be a baby-daddy rather than a husband and a parent?Does he tell his listeners that they're suckers for pursuing educationand that they're selling out their race if they do?

When Imus does any of that, call me and I'll get upset. Until then, heis what he is — a washed-up shock jock who is very easy to ignore whenyou're not looking to be made a victim.

No. We all know where the real battleground is. We know that thegangsta rappers and their followers in the athletic world have farbigger platforms to negatively define us than some old white man witha bad radio show. There's no money and lots of danger in that battle,so Jesse and Al are going to sit it out.